Last year was IBM’s Year of the Customer, so how did Nixdorf Computer manage to snap up that UKP50m point-of-sale systems contract at Tesco Plc from under the nose of resident supplier IBM? According to Tesco’s director of data processing Richard Parsons, talking to the Wall Street Journal, Nixdorf asked him what he wanted, listened and designed a 60-lane checkout system that met his needs, IBM didn’t; Nixdorf wrote part of the software before it had the contract, IBM didn’t; Nixdorf offered a slight discount, IBM didn’t; and chairman Klaus Luft visited Tesco in December to clinch the deal, and while Tesco wasn’t expecting John Akers to fly in, it feels the firm might have been a little hungrier.